A MUCH-MALIGNED road is to finally reopen almost a year since roadworks started and seven months later than expected.

The Allerton Lane, Old Road and School Green junction – which connects Thornton to Allerton – has been shut since last July when Keepmoat Homes began improvement works.

Local resident, David Maud, said the road did need widening as it was “a notorious bottleneck”, but he bemoaned the amount of time the process had taken and claimed there was a ten-week period with no activity at all.

He became “sick to the back teeth of it” and launched a petition for action to be taken by Bradford Council, which gained almost 500 signatures.

Now residents and motorists have had their prayers answered, with the local authority revealing the road will reopen on Friday.

This is following surfacing of the paths, a final layer being added to the road and markings being put in place – all of which was also delayed.

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said: “The surfacing to the new School Green-Allerton junction started last week as planned but has taken longer than expected.

“The delay is due to some other surfacing to the footways on site and it was decided to carry out this surfacing prior to laying the final layer on the road to avoid damaging the newly laid road surface.

“The footway surfacing along with all additional surfacing to continue this week and completed Wednesday, with road lining Thursday reopening the road to traffic open Friday.

“The Council is continuing to push the developer and contractor to complete all works without any further delays.”

This majorly surpassed the original end date for the roadworks and subsequent reopening of the road, which was meant to be October 8 last year.

The Telegraph & Argus reported in January this year that this deadline was extended due to a number of engineering issues becoming apparent, including the discovery of an old well underneath the road.

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said back then: “This meant more work was needed than originally planned and resulted in delays where the contractor had to suspend work in the interim.”

The local authority then touted the last week of February as when the roadworks were expected to be completed.

But it is only three months later that an end is now in sight.